When Is It Time To Schedule An Emergency Dental Visit?
Posted on: 18 February 2019
It's easy to think that a sign of trouble with a tooth or your gums is something that can wait until your next visit to the dentist, especially if you have one coming up in the next couple months. Problems with oral health, however, are generally in a state of late progress by the time you encounter the first indications that something is wrong. These three situations represent times when it's wise to ask about emergency dentistry services.
A Loose or Dislodged Tooth
Any indications of play in a tooth are bad. In some cases, particularly when you know what happened, such as a tooth being bumped by something hitting your mouth, healing is possible. You should not, however, assume nature will take care of the job. If the tooth has fallen out entirely or feels close to falling out, collect the tooth and contact an emergency dentistry practice immediately.
Tooth Debris
Chips, cracks, and other types of debris are often indications that more is going wrong with a tooth than you can see. When the underlying health of a tooth has been compromised, such as occurs during an advanced infection, pieces of the harder outer material may flake off because nothing is holding them in place anymore.
Even if the tooth is otherwise healthy, a chip or crack can still be a pathway for infectious bacteria to get into the softer tissues of the tooth. The sooner the damage is fixed, the less time there will be for an infection to progress.
In a small number of cases, debris may be left over from previous extractions, such as when someone has had a wisdom tooth removed. These are often fragments of the bone structure that previously supported the tooth that was there, and they can take months or years to work their way up through the gums. They can cause significant irritation, and some do float around as debris if they come out on their own. Fortunately, popping them out is usually fairly easy for an experienced dentist to do.
Any Facial Swelling
Whenever there's swelling to the point that it creates pressure and visible issues around the face, the jaw, or even the throat, that is a major source of concern. You'll likely need a prescription for antibiotics to bring down the source of the swelling, and your emergency dentistry practitioner may need to remove material that's infected.
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